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April 26, 2011

G22: Orioles 4, Red Sox 1

Boston could get nothing going against Britton (6-5-1-2-2, 94) and two relievers, while the Orioles chipped away at Buchholz (6.2-12-4-2-5, 104), getting at least one runner on base in every inning and scoring three of their four runs on sacrifice flies.

Buchholz set a career-high for hits allowed. He had allowed 10 hits to the Tigers on May 7, 2008 (I was at that game!), and given up nine hits on four other occasions, including twice to the Yankees last season.

Dustin Pedroia singled to start the fourth. He took second on Adrian Gonzalez's grounder, stole third, and scored on Kevin Youkilis's fly ball. With two outs in the fifth, Jason Varitek singled, Jacoby Ellsbury doubled, and Pedroia walked, loading the bases. Gonzalez grounded to second.

Gonzalez doubled to open the eighth, but he was stranded there as Yook popped to first and David Ortiz and Jed Lowrie struck out.

Britton, a 23-year-old left-hander, made his major league debut on April 3. This is his fifth start.

After beginning the season 6-1, the Orioles have lost 11 of their last 13 games. Baltimore has scored more than three runs in only four of those 13 games and they have a team OBP of .287, only .001 better than AL-worst Tampa Bay.

On a related note, I have another NYY fan friend (a side effect of being from NY originally) who has been sending me her negative feelings about Manny.

I need some ammunition to respond to her comments---e.g., re Manny's fake knee injury, Manny getting voted out by his teammates in LA and CHI, throwing the travel secretary on the ground, etc. Any good sources that tell the other side?

"Throwing traveling secretary on the ground" sounds like it's confused with Pedro vs Zimmer! I don't remember hearing Manny threw anyone on the ground. I thought it was pushed or shoved or words to that effect.

I am inclined not to engage further in the debate with her. My last email said that she was not going to change my opinion, that I was not judging Manny as a person but as a ballplayer, and that all ballplayers (like all people) have their flaws.

She responded one more time with the crap I mentioned, but I think I am tired of the debate.

Yeah, I may send her Allan's post on the knee story, but then I have to continue to debate it all with her. Maybe Allan would like to?? He has a better handle on all the facts than my Swiss cheese brain does. :)

I think I figured out why I'm not blacked out. mlb.tv takes my location from my zip code associated with my IP address. The local comcast office is in a zip code that was added maybe five years ago. It appears they don't know that zip code. If I put in my zip code, it says I am blacked out. Maybe they won't figure this one out.

It's a huge reason we stopped going to games at Yankee Stadium. It's been this way for at least 10 years. You'd have to scream to talk to the person sitting right next to you. Really really bothers me.

Well if it makes you feel better, Clay had given up 40 hits over his first 35.1 innings last year, which is right around 10 hits per 9 innings, which is around what he is now in 2011. Last year he ended up way down at 7.4 H/9, so hopefully he can do something close to that again.